Omaha Rollercoaster

So I've come to the PLO game after my sick exit in the £50 freezeout, but still sitting on a good cash gain in the NLH earlier. Quite a few familiar faces in the game - Ostrich, Charlie T, Miriam, Minh, JoeJoe and others well known to the club.

I sit with £500 and almost immediately get dealt Aces (AA67hh). I raise to £22 and get two callers (Minh and Miriam). Minh only has £75 left so I figure he will bet the flop when Miriam and I both check the Qh8h2d flop. So it is and when Miriam just calls, I push with mu overpair and nut flush draw. She calls with JT98hh. A 9 on the flop is good for her straight and I lose half my stack after just 5 minutes in the game !

I lose half the rest when I get Charlie all in preflop - his AKJ2 out flops my QQJ9hh. He flops 2s full of Kings.

The rollercoaster starts to swing upwards however when I get the rest of my chips in with AK42 on an AJhh flop. Miriam has a beautiful looking KTT9hh hand but one pair is good (actually I make the wheel with running 3-5, but the pair was good anyway !)

Now I get all in on the K86dd flop with ATJ9dd facing K6xx in JoeJoe's hand. Ah on the turn gives me more outs, and the Td on the river is good.

Back up to ~ £400 and on my way up to a first highpoint of £1,200 or so - via Aces filling up and nut-flushing, for example.

I lay some pretty hands down facing strong action and my stack falls back to £800 then £550. eg in one hand I hold 8864 and make a raise on a 744 board. Charlie puts me all-in and I fold - he had 5678 so he had me locked up !

After losing some key hands, I'm down to less than £200 when I get all in pre-flop with my Aces against KQQJds of JoeJoe. My Aces hold and in the next hand, I pick up the very unpromising J532 ! Thing is, I am closing the action pre flop facing a raise to £14 and 5 callers already. I can hardly fold - I might flop quads !

I don't but as flops for my hand go, AJ4 rainbow is about as good as it gets !

Tim bets the pot £84. Round to me. With a wheel-wrap and a blocker to him holding a set of Jacks (I do not think he has a set of Aces) I make the only logical move imo: all-in (well - a pot sized raise to £336 and we put the rest in). We don't see Tim's hand but a deuce on the turn and a blank on the river get the job done for me !

The momentum is with me. The game is lively - even without me there are some huge pots and some interesting plays.

Baka and Joel get in a big pot. On the river the board is TsAd8d9s3h and Baka checks to Joel who bets all in for £360 (approx the pot size). Baka make a great call with AA - Joel has JJJx and was betting the blockers of course - one of those great Omaha plays that can work so well, or other times fall so, so flat !

I'm struggling to hold onto my stack but I do resist to temptation to get it all in when I don;t know exactly where I am. A good example:

There has been a small raise pre-flop by Mike Tse and all called - about £80 in preflop. I have KK97cc and have decided not to re-raise pre flop for fear of getting all in vs AAxx.

The flop is interesting: QcTh7c. I have a pair, an overpair, a gutshot and the 2nd nut flush draw. Mike bets £65. I make it £175 trying to get it heads up with him, but Andy (I don;t know him - but is clearly tight) now check-raises to £675 !

Ouch. My draws may be good. The check-raise says QQQ and maybe vs a bare set I have the odds particularly with Mike's £150 all in. On the other hand, I could be drawing to a second best hand in any case.

If I do call it's really a £750 call as there is no way I could not put the rest of my chips with only £175 behind.

I fold and we see that Andy indeed has QQA3. Mike has J987. Neither of them has any clubs. The board completes AA so the set becomes a house and is good. I would have gone broke there.

Simon Hennessey is in the game. He's sat down with £82 and after losing the first hand, had not much more than £60 which he managed to spin up in record time to over £1k - a fair amount of it coming from my stack.

It's getting into the late early hours now and it's a great game. I am not sure I have ever played in a game with Simon. He's known to be a very strong player, but he's not short of gamble either so it's always interesting ! He has now moved to my left - so he has position on me which doesn't seem great !

I've managed to bring my stack up - another leg of the rollercoaster. I particularly liked this hand: I have QT55cc. The flop is helpful: Jc9c8s. I check the nuts, and we see a turn. 3d. I bet £50. Simon immediately makes it £200.

I move all in for £561. Simon is not happy ! "Do you have the Ten of clubs he says?" I didn't immediately see why this was so crucial until he folded TTTJ face up !

I got into quite a few pots with Simon and things fell my way. Meanwhile, I think Simon tried quite a few moves that were just slightly off in their timing. I was even able to call on the river with one pair and win - something I have had on my "to do" list for a long time !

Having Simon on my left had its problems but also its advantages - I could rely on him to pump it up pre-flop so enabling me to get in a good amount pre-flop with a monster. Other times I tried to represent the monster. On one particular occasion I "reluctantly" made up the straddle - my had was the under-rated J732 rainbow. Simon of course raised to £20 which was called in 4 spots before I now made it £120 - looking to take it down.

Simon had other ideas and called. Heads up to the flop: an interesting one: 234 all red.

Problem .... I don't really want to lead at the flop and face a £900 raise. I also don't want to check-raise to £1,000 and get snapped off my 56xx so the way it goes down is that I check-fold a £300 bet. I show my 2pair and Simon shows 2389 !!

Quality Omaha.

I was able to end the session - we were 5handed and we had all agreed it was the last hand - winning a 4-way pot (with 2 stacks all in preflop) with a straight flush !

Bottom line - a solid win which contrasts markedly with my online cash performances.